When I posted our May profit of $3,000, someone commented: “That’s nothing.”
From a pure numbers perspective, they have a point.
But we’ve chosen to build a lifestyle agency focused on sustainability rather than maximum profit.
This is the reality of running a boutique local SEO agency in 2025, and I’m sharing our exact numbers to show what this model actually looks like in practice.
Key Takeaways
Before we dive into the numbers, here’s what two years of running a small agency have taught us:
- Performance-based retainers create win-win scenarios where we only profit when clients succeed.
- Schema implementation delivers almost immediate visibility increases for local sites.
- Deep client relationships lead to better retention (duh) – we’ve only lost one client in 1.5 years (and they still recommend us).
- Sustainable operations with $20K monthly expenses support three well-paid employees and consistent service delivery.
Our May and June 2025 Financial Breakdown
The numbers can look unimpressive on paper while delivering exceptional value to everyone involved.
May 2025: Strong Performance
- Revenue: $27,000
- Expenses: $20,800
- Profit: $6,460
That $20,800 covered three employees’ salaries plus all operational costs.
June 2025: The Reality of Fluctuation
- Revenue: $22,150
- Expenses: $20,460
- Profit: $1,694
June’s numbers don’t include a ~$600 performance retainer payment that rolled to July.
How Performance-Based Retainers Work
Here’s where things get interesting.
We offer performance-based retainers where clients pay us nothing until they cross a predetermined revenue threshold.
Then we take a percentage.
Why would we take on all the risk?
Because it solves two massive problems:
- Trust barriers disappear when clients have nothing to lose.
- Budget concerns vanish when payment comes from results.
Some months these clients generate a couple hundred dollars.
Other months? Several thousand each.
Nicest part, is there isn’t a ceiling and they can’t fire us.
They have to buy us out.
And it’s trending up as these newer clients gain traction.
It’s an approach that requires patience and confidence in our abilities.
When you’re not trying to scale to 100 clients, you can afford to invest in these deeper partnerships and share in the success.
When Traffic Drops But Revenue Increases
This goes against conventional agency wisdom.
In May, we were down 1% in clicks (131 total).
In June? Down 13%.
Most agencies would be concerned. But the full story shows why these metrics can be misleading.
Jacob’s post captured this perfectly with real client data:
- Client A: Organic traffic down 5%, organic revenue up 329%.
- Client B: Traffic up 16%, revenue up 230%.
Our own portfolio tells the same story.
One site dropped from 350 to 150 monthly clicks – a 57% decrease that would understandably concern most agencies.
But here’s what we actually lost: irrelevant national blog traffic.
What we gained? Higher rankings on money keywords that matter.
Service pages in local markets. Quality leads over quantity clicks.
The key insight: Despite the traffic decline, our clients’ revenue continued to grow.
For local service businesses, a handful of high-quality leads can be worth more than hundreds of irrelevant visitors.
Schema Implementation Results
For two local sites with admittedly low volume, we added advanced schema to homepages and service area pages.
The results were almost immediate:
- Dramatic impression increases within days.
- Click growth following impression gains.
- Reproducible across multiple implementations.
Sure, we’re talking about going from zero organic leads to 15-20 monthly.
But let me show you the math that matters to a local business:
20 organic leads × 30% conversion = 6 new jobs
6 jobs × $8,000 average = $48,000 revenue
$48,000 × 25% margin = $12,000 profit
$12,000 profit ÷ $2,500 retainer = 4.8x ROI
And it scales from there.
Current SEO Tools We’re Using
While we keep our client roster small, we’re constantly testing tools to deliver better results.
SERP Similarity (Keyword Insights) has become invaluable for understanding cannibalization issues.
Example:
- “SEO analytics” vs “SEO analytics tools”: 0% overlap → separate pages needed.
- “SEO analytics” vs “SEO analytics help”: 44% overlap → can share a page.
Lead Truffle handles our conversion optimization.
We’re exploring What Converts for better lead tracking (currently manual).
We track everything through portfolio metrics in SEO Gits, giving us a unified view across all clients rather than getting lost in individual site metrics.
Our Small Client Portfolio Strategy
In 1.5 years, we’ve parted ways with exactly one client.
A dental practice where we mutually agreed on the mismatch.
We still communicate with them and have a great relationship.
However, we have a small # of clients, so we get to know everyone really well.
It has it’s pros and cons, but it’s refreshing.
Final Thoughts
This transparency isn’t about bragging – a $3,000 monthly profit won’t impress those focused on rapid scale.
It’s about showing what a sustainable lifestyle agency actually looks like.
We’ve built a business where:
- Employees are well-compensated and not overworked.
- Clients get personalized attention and see real results.
- We maintain healthy margins while investing in our team.
- Everyone involved has a positive working relationship.
The home service businesses we work with don’t need massive traffic.
They need quality leads that convert to high-ticket jobs.
And that’s exactly what we deliver, month after month.
What makes this work for us:
- Strong client retention (only one departure in 1.5 years).
- Happy employees who aren’t burning out.
- Clients who see real revenue growth.
- Sustainable operations that support everyone involved.
This approach has worked well for us.
It might not be right for everyone, but hopefully sharing these numbers helps someone else considering a similar path.
Want to discuss SEO? Feel free to reach out. I’m always happy to hop on a call with other SEOs.
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